Spot what’s wrong with this ‘improvement’

A pedestrian refuge is being constructed on Wood Street at the junction with Lea Bridge Road. See what it extends into. Brilliant.

Entrance to a pedestrian zone

'Pedestrian zone' - attractively free of vehicles. The lorry belongs to Rymans and drives into the pedestrian zone after 10 am frequently, never apparently getting a ticket. Which is odd, bearing in mind this is a high enforcement area, bristling with CCTV and parking attendants.

Obstructed cycle lane update

I reported the road-work signs littered around Central Walthamstow, most jauntily thrown into the cycle lanes by the contractors repairing the road. I sent this on the 29th September.

I received an automatic email from Waltham Forest on the 29th, thanking me for my complaint.

That was last Wednesday. And on Friday, the complainant, The Grumpy Cyclist, reported

I cycled past the roadsigns this evening to find that they haven't been moved an inch.

I cycled past the ones on Selborne Road today. They still haven’t been moved. In fact the situation is worse than it was before, with even more crap in the one metre wide cycle lane by the bus station.

But then that’s why I set up this blog. I got tired of reporting stuff that was never dealt with. I thought I’d embarrass the council instead. Silly me. This crap council is beyond embarrassment.

Crash on Woodford New Road, Walthamstow

Police diverting traffic away from the A104 Woodford New Road down Forest Road today. (Cars are allowed to go past at red. And why not, since the green phase is only there for pedestrians and cyclists, who will just have to wait for a gap in the traffic, as befits these unimportant travel modes.)

A104 Woodford New Road / Lea Bridge Road Walthamstow
Both ways between A503 Forest Road and A114 Whipps Cross Road (Whipps Cross Roundabout)

A104 Woodford New Road / Lea Bridge Road both ways closed due to accident investigation work between A503 Forest Road and A114 Whipps Cross Road (Whipps Cross Roundabout). The accident has closed the road since 03:45 this morning from just south of the A406 Waterworks Roundabout through to Whipps Cross. Bus routes 20, 257, 357, W12, W15 and W19 are on diversion. Diversion: Buses are mostly diverting via South Woodford and Snaresbrook via High Road Woodford Green and Woodford Road.

That's what the travel news says. No information yet available via the news media. It sounds as if this might have involved a fatality or fatalities. It's hard to tell what's happened as the police have closed off such a lengthy section of road it's impossible to see anything.

The entrance to an off-road cycle path

More attractive cycling infrastructure. Kings Farm E17

Police crack down on 'rule-breaking' cycling

(Above) New Walk, Leicester

Cyclists risk £30 fines as police mount patrols on Leicester's New Walk

Many cyclists say there is no alternative safe route along London Road.

Last week, the Mercury reported that a city council panel dealing with inner city cycling improvements was inundated with requests for better routes – many calling for New Walk to be a bike route.

A 22-year-old student cyclist, who lives in the city centre, said: "I'm amazed to find that the police are more readily dishing out fines to cyclists on New Walk.

"I appreciate New Walk's unique character, but I fail to see how me cycling, slowly, up the hill puts anyone in danger.

"Leicester may pride itself on being green, but the fact of the matter is that many cycle lanes are shared with double-decker buses or simply stop at a bollard.

"New Walk is big enough for the both of us. I've been verbally abused by a pedestrian who stood in my way on New Walk, caused me to swerve and shouted abuse at me – I'd like to fine her."

Meanwhile in the City of London:

So far this year, City Police have ticketed 1,667 cyclists for what they call 'illegal' cycling. 1,304 of those are for red light jumping. A new trick, by the way, is to have a plain clothes officer spotting RLJers and radio-ing a uniformed colleague further along the street.

And

Transport for London says this summer’s crack down on rule-breakers resulted in:
more than 900 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) of up to £60 issued to drivers and motorcyclists and more than 400 FPNs of up to £60 issued to cyclists

There's nothing wrong with the police targeting cyclists who harass pedestrians. But the TfL figures are disturbing because they reveal a complete lack of proportion, with far more enforcement targeted at cyclists than drivers. There are vastly more lawless drivers around thahn there are lawless cyclists. And a rule-breaking driver poses far more of a threat to those around them than a rule-breaking cyclist. The behaviour of rule-breaking cyclists is also a response to car-centric infrastructure and dangerous driving. The streets are crammed with drivers chatting on handheld mobile phones, whose behaviour reflects the knowledge that the police are not interested in enforcement. Expecting cyclists to obey red lights at junctions where drivers routinely drive into Advanced Stop Lines is unreasonable. And the Met has never shown the slightest interest in enforcing laws designed to protect pedestrians or cyclists.

LM05WYC: criminal driver on Ainslie Wood Road E4

I was cycling south along Ainslie Wood Gardens E4 yesterday.

I paused at the junction with Ainslie Wood Road for traffic.

And a black car reg. LM05 WYC cruised by containing a solitary white male, who was steering with one hand while chatting into a handheld mobile phone with the other. He passed by, then turned into the house on the corner, 99 Ainslie Wood Road, Chingford, London E4. Time 11.40 am.

The driver may not live at this house but simply have been a visitor. I decided not to seek a confrontation but simply to photograph the car and house once he’d gone inside. The driver is presumably a father, as the car displays a BABY ON BOARD sign in the rear window.

Now I regard this individual as a very dangerous criminal. He is prepared to risk the lives of others by driving in a way which is unlawful, dangerous, and puts the lives of cyclists, pedestrians and other road users at risk. He’s a bully encased in a bubble of steel. But this smug oaf knows that governments wink at his criminality and the police have little interest in dealing with this kind of dangerous anti-social behaviour. Even though someone who drives while using a handheld mobile phone displays a disregard for road traffic law that is likely to extend to other spheres – speed limits, perhaps, or Advanced Stop Lines for cyclists.

The rot starts in Westminster, of course. As I am not a member of the Labour Party (or any other) I am indifferent to its internal affairs, but my eye was caught by this remark:

The new leader emphasised his belief in civil liberties and distanced himself from New Labour’s tough counter-terror plans.

But that immediately put him at odds with Shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who warned: ‘You do not demonstrate your commitment to civil liberties by failing to protect the most important civil liberty of all; the right to be safe on our streets.’

Which is where I begin to feel nauseous. An establishment toady like Alan Johnson has never displayed the slightest interest in ‘the right to be safe on our streets’. Terrorism is obviously a danger but it’s by no means the biggest threat to life and limb in Britain. Statistically, it’s an insignificant threat. Terrorists have killed 52 people in Britain in the past 10 years; drivers have killed 35,0000. I do not personally feel remotely in danger from terrorists. But I do feel in danger from people like the man who drove into 99 Ainslie Wood Road, London E4 9DD, whose yobbish and dangerous behaviour enjoys the tacit complicity of the petrolhead ConDem government and the car supremacist Metropolitan Police.